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‘Lives lost by ignoring app’

A TOP epidemiologist believes Britain’s death toll could have been slashed if officials had rolled out his groundbreaking app eight weeks ago.

Health chiefs began talks with Tim Spector last week after his work logging Covid cases was highlighted in our sister paper, the

Sunday Mirror.

His Covid

Symptom Study app, downloaded by three million, logs potential symptoms, including loss of taste and smell – known as anosmia.

It was only last

Monday that loss of taste and smell were added to the official list of symptoms – meaning thousands could have been unwittingly spreading the virus.

Professor Spector, from King’s College London, claims he approached the Government on March 24. He said: “We offered our research straight away. It was a bit chaotic. They didn’t have time to talk.

“The whole story about loss of smell is such a big factor. If we’re correct, and we believe we are, we missed about 16 per cent of cases – people who were spreading it around.

“If they’d been using our app, they might have selfisolated. I think, in retrospect, it could have saved lives, yes.”

The UK has had 250,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases but the total is feared to be higher due to lack of testing.

Prof Spector is now speaking to officials from the Department of

Health but claims he is still being snubbed by Public Health England.

He previously blasted the tracing app being developed by the NHS as it focused only on coughs and fever.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-tam said anosmia was added to the list of symptoms because it does make “a very small difference” to “the diagnostic cluster” provided by PHE.